


Hades

by shineebigbang



Category: SHINee
Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 17:40:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11925918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shineebigbang/pseuds/shineebigbang





	Hades

“Mama, why can’t Papa be here?” a little boy asked, staring up at his mother with wide, wet eyes. The two were sitting outside under bright stars, a little girl a few years older than the boy next to them.

In front of the boy was a telescope, aimed at a small dot in the sky, a gift for the boy for his birthday.

“I’m sorry, Jonghyun, but it isn’t so easy for him to come home. He has a long way to travel, you know,” the mother answered sadly, her own pain of separation in her words and face. The boy could clearly see it, as he climbed into her lap and hugged her, his skinny arms wrapping around her. She smiled softly, hugging him, and giving a gentle kiss to his head.

“It’s okay,” the little girl told him. “We’ll see him soon. It’s almost his visiting day.”

“But that’s not soon, Sodam! It’s four months away,” Jonghyun cried, slipping off his mother’s lap. “I want to see Papa now!”

“Then why don’t you look through the microscope?” Sodam suggested. Jonghyun lit up at the idea, having forgotten about his present. He scrambled over to it, pressing an eye to it and staring upward in excitement. The small dot, barely visible to the naked eye in the sky, suddenly became much clearer. Jonghyun seeing a huge space station hovering in the reaches of space.

Sodam scooted forward so she was right next to him, wanting to see through it herself but not wanting to take it from him. “That’s where Papa is,” she said solemnly. “You might not be able to see him, but he’s in there.”

Jonghyun leaned back from the microscope, blinking rapidly, tears welling up in his eyes. “Why does he have to be there? Can’t he just stay with us? Doesn’t he want to stay with us?”

“Of course, he does,” his mother soothed. “He wants to be with us more than anything. But there are times when we can’t have what we want.”

“Then I’ll be there with him,” Jonghyun proclaimed, his mother going pale at the announcement.

“Jonghyun, sweetie, you don’t know what you’re asking for,” she whispered, clearly distraught at the very idea of Jonghyun following in the footsteps of his father.

“I do know!” Jonghyun insisted stubbornly. “If Papa can’t be with us here, I’ll just go to him. He must be lonely up there, right?”

His mother sighed, glancing at Sodam, who looked scared at the thought of Jonghyun leaving.

“We’ll discuss it more when you’re older,” was all she said, but she had a sinking feeling in her stomach at the look on his face.

*

“No, no, no, no, no,” the words flowed from his mother’s mouth like a faucet, tears streaming down her face at the news. “He can’t be dead, he was supposed to come home in a week,” she cried out, leaning forward, and burying her face in her hands. Her sobs were wretched.

Sodam sat beside their mother, her eyes dry yet glassy, hand resting on her mother’s back. She seemed completely out of it, saying nothing.

Jonghyun himself stood facing the two of them, in shock, tears welling up in his eyes not having yet fallen. He stared down at the coffee table in front of the couch his mother and sister were sitting on, the opened letter mocking him. He snatched it up, eyes scanning each damning word.

_We regret to inform you of the death of Sergeant Kim Jongyop. He died while in action on January 23, 2079, while combating the Unknown menace. Our sincere condolences on behalf…_

__Jonghyun threw down the letter, tears streaming down his face as he stormed out, the front door slamming shut behind him.

*

“Jonghyun, think about this,” his mother pleaded, face red and splotchy from tears and stress. Jonghyun felt his heart crack at the sight, pained about making his mother so distraught. The last time he’d seen her so stressed and sad had been when he was thirteen and his father had died.

“I have,” he told her, the same stubbornness on his face as had been there when he was seven and proclaiming he would go to the military space station, Olympus, to be with his father. “I’ve thought about this a lot, for a long time. It’s what I want.”

“But why? You said you wanted to be with your father, but Jonghyun, you know that he’s-,”

“Dead? I know. I was there when the letter came, mom.”

“Then why?” She looked defeated, broken down. He wished that Sodam weren’t at college, that she were here to comfort their mother when he couldn’t.

“Someone has to volunteer to go up there. And what else am I supposed to do? Go to college like Sodam? I’m barely scraping by with my grades. Could you even picture me with a desk job?” The very idea of spending the rest of his life surrounded by papers made him depressed. He couldn’t imagine how much he would hate the actual thing, when he already despised school so much.

“There’s something, I know there is. Just…anything but this, sweetheart, please. You don’t even know what you’re fighting up there. No one knows what the Unknown are but the military,” she begged, close to tears again, and he felt himself breaking at the sight. He steeled himself, shaking his head.

“I’m sorry, mom, but I made my choice a long time ago.”

“Kim Jonghyun,” she said, voice suddenly on fire, eyes hard. He felt himself freeze at the sight, years of being scolded flashing through his memories. His mother could truly be scary when she was angry. “You are _not_ going to Olympus. If you walk out that door, you are never coming back, whether you’re alive or not. Do you understand?”

His face felt wet, and he realized he was crying as he backed away from her, terrified. She was making him choose between her and Olympus? When he knew what life here would lead to? A horrible sense of betrayal welled up as he spun around and ran up the stairs, eyes burning as he packed his bag.

He knew he would miss her. She had been the best mother he could have ever asked for.

*

Jonghyun sat in the waiting room, twisting his hands in his lap nervously, his duffle bag carefully placed by his side on an empty chair. Other volunteers dotted the waiting room, some looking nervous, some looking bored, others desperate. He knew a lot of people volunteered just to have a steady job, place to stay, and guaranteed meals.

“Jonghyun, Kim,” the forbidding looking receptionist called, and he lurched forward, grabbing his bag, and making his way to where the receptionist stood in the doorway.

“Follow me,” he said, turning, and walking down the hallway, Jonghyun walking after him. The hallway was long and brightly lit, the fluorescent glow giving everything a flat look.

He was led to an open office door, the receptionist gesturing for him to go inside before walking away. He tentatively stepped inside, glancing around.

It was obvious that the office was temporary, not a single personal artefact in the entire room. That, or the person who used it didn’t do things like decorate their office, which seemed a little depressing to Jonghyun.

“Sit,” a voice said, and he turned, eyes falling on a woman. She had her dark brown hair up in a tight bun, eyes dark. He sat gingerly, setting his bag next to him on the floor.

Her eyes flicked down to it, and he flushed, knowing exactly what it looked like to be volunteering for the army with an already packed bag. He supposed he was homeless for the moment, considering his mom had essentially kicked him out.

She had a file out in front of her, his filled-out application sitting on top. They sat in silence as she read it, only taking a minute before looking back up at him.

“I’ll be frank, Mr. Kim,” she said, voice business-like and brisk. “It doesn’t matter why you’re joining the army. All that matter is that you are. You indicated you wanted to be a part of Aries?”

“Uh, yes, I think Aries would suit me the best,” he answered, a little bit scared by the woman.

“That will be taken under consideration, but ultimately it will be up to your training instructor to decide your final denomination,” she told him. “You are familiar with all of the different sects of Olympus, are you not?”

“I know a few.” He felt a little stupid to realize he hadn’t looked up any information about any of this. He only knew what he’d heard of, and that was the main fighting force was called ‘Aries.’ The rest he was admittedly clueless about.

She seemed a little exasperated by his cluelessness, reaching down to pull out a pamphlet and handing it to him. He stared down at it. It was titled ‘ _Olympus: Denominations.’_

_All departments and sections of Olympus and the World Army are delineated by Greek gods and goddesses. Each god and goddess corresponds to a certain area of expertise. All members of the World Army are assigned a department. The departments are as follows:_

_Zeus: Upper command and elite soldiers_

_Poseidon: Transportation_

_Athena: Lower command and tacticians_

_Hermes: Communications_

_Aries: General soldiers, the main fighting force_

_Demeter: Food, upkeeping and cleaning_

_Apollo: Medical_

_Artemis: Scouting and elite solo units_

_Hephaestus: Maintenance and engineering_

_Asclepius: Science_

__

 

__

 

__The rest of the pamphlet went into more detail about each unit, but he would have to read that later. He looked up from the pamphlet to see the woman watching him patiently. “Now that you are more familiar with the units of Olympus, do you wish to change your preference? Keep in mind that while your preference will be taken into consideration, it is still your training instructor’s final word on the matter.”

“I think I’ll keep Aries,” he said, honestly unsure on if that was the right choice. While he now had a loose idea of each department he was still confused on certain things. Like what ‘elite solo units’ meant. He assumed the rest of the pamphlet would answer that question, though, so he remained silent and didn’t ask about it.

“Very well.” She scanned through the rest of the application before looking back up at him. “It seems everything is in order. I’ll give you one chance, Mr. Kim, to change your mind now. Joining Olympus is no small undertaking. Members are up there for years at a time, with no real contact between them or their families beyond holovids. The training is intense and the fighting is no less. If you walk out of this door right now there will be no repercussions and you can continue life as you were.”

Jonghyun was silent, conflicted. He wanted to go back to his mother, to apologize and tell her he hadn’t meant it. That he would choose her every time, that he wasn’t his father, leaving her with two children to escape to the stars.

But he was a coward. He couldn’t find the strength within himself to go back, to face her again and live a life he knew he would despise.

“I’ll stay,” he said, although it came out as more of a whisper. The woman raised an eyebrow but nodded.

“You’ll next go through a physical exam,” she informed him, clasping her hands in front of herself. “The physical should be rather fast, assuming you are in good physical condition. Afterwards you will enter training, which all together takes around four weeks. And after that, you will be on the next wave to Olympus. Good luck, Mr. Kim.”

The door opened, a new member of the staff standing in front of him, in an orange-gold uniform he recognized as the uniform of Olympus, although it was in a color he’d never seen before.

The man smiled kindly at him as he followed him down yet another hallway, seemingly noticing his curiosity. “Uniforms on Olympus are color-coded,” he explained, opening a door, and gesturing him inside. “I am a member of Apollo, so my uniform is this color. All members of Apollo will be wearing the same uniform in the same color as I.”

“Then…you’re the one who’s examining me for my physical, then?”

“Right you are,” he said, nodding. “Sit there, if you will,” he pointed to the reclining bed-thing Jonghyun had always wondered the name of, with the crinkly paper laying on top. Jonghyun sat, the paper crinkling loudly, and the examination began quickly.

He first shone a light in Jonghyun’s eye, Jonghyun resisting the urge to blink. He then shone another light in Jonghyun’s ears, placed a thermostat under his tongue, tested the reaction of a hit to his knee. The exam was systematic and normal. Jonghyun had expected something new, considering he was to be going into space, but he said nothing despite his curiosity.

“Everything seems perfectly healthy so far. There’s two last things we need to do, and then we’ll be moving on to take you to training.”

He followed the doctor to a bathroom instantly knowing what he wanted. He sighed, the man grinning at him. “You know how to do this, right? Pee into the cup, don’t touch the inside, tape it closed write your name on the tape. Don’t go past the line.”

“Yea, I’ve got it,” he muttered, closing the door, and doing as directed, glad he hadn’t gone to the bathroom in a few hours. He put the cup in the metal locker thing on the far side of the bathroom before washing his hands and exiting, the man patiently waiting on the other side.

He was taken further through the hallways, emerging into a wide room with several reclining chairs, two of them filled with people getting their blood taken. He grimaced, not exactly a fan of needles, but he’d expected this. He sat gingerly at the proffered chair, a woman dressed in an Apollo uniform walking up to him and sitting on a stool.

“Which arm would you rather it be?” she asked, and he shrugged, not really caring. She nodded, placing a band on the arm nearest her, his left, right below the elbow to restrict blood flow. She rubbed the spot in the middle of his fore-arm with rubbing alcohol to sterilize before inserting the needle, Jonghyun feeling a small prick.

He looked away from the sight, a little nauseous.

“Alright, you’re done,” she said, removing the band, and pressing a small square of gauze to the prick, using medical tape to tape it down. He stood, the previous doctor still waiting patiently for him to finish.

“You’ll be heading to training next,” the doctor told him.

He was led to an outside area, next to what almost looked like a bus stop, several people who had gone through the exam already waiting there. He sat on the curb, duffle bag in his lap, waiting and wondering exactly what training would hold. He didn’t think it would be easy. The idea of it was daunting.

A bus pulled up and everyone got on, Jonghyun one of the last to get on and relegated to the very back. He curled up in the corner, suddenly exhausted, the day getting to him. He just wanted to sleep. He would try to take a nap on the bus, but he didn’t know how long the ride would be, and he didn’t want to get caught sleeping so soon.

He had a feeling that during training he would be much more exhausted.

*

He was right. He lay on his cot in the barracks, absolutely drained, every muscle screaming at him, his mind dead.

They had them do pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, hand-to-hand combat, running and jogging, swimming, practically every exercise he had ever heard of and many he hadn’t, and they did it, multiple times a week.

There were aiming drills, where they were taught how to shoot and aim several types of guns, from laser rifles to pistols, and how to take apart and maintain those weapons.

Rations were carefully controlled to be as healthy as possible and give the exact number of calories and nutrients needed, down to the last milligram, and were usually not enough to really fill his stomach as much as he would like.

Zero-gravity simulations were difficult and nausea inducing, even known as the ‘Vomit Comet’ due to the chamber’s shape and tendency to cause almost everyone who went through it to vomit.

Flight simulations that were supposed to teach them how to fly small blaster ships was by far the hardest. He had never had to fly an aircraft in his life, and doing that while aiming the guns and obeying his squad captain’s commands was incredibly difficult.

They were taught basic army protocols, formations, battle plans, how to survive conditions under pressure, survival training if they were stranded in space, and so many other things his mind was as stressed out and overextended as his body.

And really, what could he do if he were stranded in space? It was space, and he could use his blaster boots to maneuver, but space was huge, and that wouldn’t get him anywhere fast. Most of their training for that basically told them to just float there and wait after activating an emergency beacon located in their combat suits.

It was so much in such little time that when training concluded and he went through the final exam, he only barely managed to scrape by his assessment, ranked 178th out of 200 trainees in his camp.

It was so bad that his trainer had considered sending him to Demeter, but Jonghyun had begged him not to. He had not trained for four weeks in this hell just to be put as a chef or cleaner on Olympus.

And so, he was reluctantly placed by his trainer in Aries, with the advice of _“Keep training, kid.”_

__He knew his instructor had no real faith in his survival. Jonghyun didn’t really either. What had he been thinking, coming here? He wasn’t cut out for Olympus, that he could tell already. This was a disaster.

To top it all off, the Unknown mystery had remained unexplained. All his life he’d been told that his dad and millions of people were at Olympus fight the Unknown, despite the World Military’s refusal to say exactly what the Unknown were. All details were restricted to those at Olympus, and it seemed even in the training camp for Olympus, they refused to say exactly what the Unknown were.

They were told that once at Olympus, there would be a mass presentation given to them teaching every detail about the Unknown that the World Military had gathered. This satisfied most, but it only confused Jonghyun. Wouldn’t it be more practical to teach them all about the Unknown and the best ways to combat them while in training? It made no sense.

*

Jonghyun stared straight down at the floor, already feeling a bit nauseous. He was in a shuttle filled with new recruits headed for Olympus, and even with the zero-gravity training he couldn’t help but feel sick. Others around him also looked vaguely nauseous, but the majority looked fine, and he wished he was a better recruit and soldier. He really wasn’t cut out for this. He missed his mom. He missed Sodam.

He hadn’t seen his sister in months. He wished he’d at least seen her once before heading to Olympus. Now he had no idea if he’d ever see her again.

The shuttle connected smoothly to Olympus, the hatch on the side opening with a hiss as the shuttle depressurized. There was a strange sense of vertigo as gravity re-asserted itself, the gravity field of Olympus enveloping them. The metal harness keeping him in his seat automatically retracted. He stood up, everyone filing out of the shuttle and then stopping to stare in awe.

They were in a docking bay. It was massive, with seemingly hundreds of ships crowding the cavernous space. Soldiers in all kinds of colors were everywhere, although a burnt red seemed to be the most common. He glanced down at his own uniform, handed to him right after training, a burnt red itself. It was the color of Aries. Considering Aries was the main fighting force and the largest department of Olympus by far, it made statistical sense that it would be the most common uniform scurrying around.

A man in a chocolate brown uniform, the color of Demeter, was waiting for them.

“Recruits,” he shouted, everyone instantly turning to him and the chatter quieting down. “This is Olympus. We are currently in one of our docking bays, where all functional ships and spacecraft are located. You will be here often, so I suggest you pay attention as we pass through.” He beckoned with his hand and soldiers of every color minus Zeus and Athena stepped forward. “All of you are to line up behind the soldier of your department. They will take you on a tour of the facilities you will be using in your department and then show you to your barracks.”

Jonghyun lined up behind a woman in the Aries uniform, her dark red easily standing out among the other colors. Once everyone was lined up they were taken through the docking bay, all of them continuing to stare around at the giant facility. It was like nothing Jonghyun had ever seen. It was massive, people of all ethnicities and wearing a variety of colored uniforms scattered throughout. There were giant ships and smaller ships, Jonghyun recognizing the man-of-war’s and the smaller blaster cruisers. One truly huge ship was located to the left, Jonghyun remembering those as the command ships used as hubs for deeper excursions.

They exited the docking bay, the groups going their separate ways. The hallways were long and metal, the ceiling arched to give the illusion of more space than there was. Each step clanked on the grated metal floor. With all of them moving together, it was quite loud.

They passed through a red archway and their guide stopped, pointing to it. “Remember this,” she said. “This means you are entering the Aries section of Olympus. It is the largest section of Olympus due to the large number of Aries soldiers, so you will most likely only really come to know the immediate area around where you are sleeping at first. I will be showing you around this area.” They passed through, making so many twists and turns Jonghyun almost went dizzy, before stopping before the open entrance to a large room.

“This is the simulation room,” their guide said. The consoles Jonghyun had come to recognize as the computers which ran the training simulations lined the room, a few people practicing on them and a few others playing what looked to be video games. “The consoles can be used for both training and recreational purposes,” she told them. “Although you are required to log in with your personal ID with each use, and you only have a certain amount of allotted time allowed for recreation. Recreational time stretches between all forms of recreation, not just on these consoles. You will be issued these IDs at the end of this tour, and are required to carry them with you everywhere. You will have to pay for a replacement if you lose it. I suggest you do not lose it, as it is both your access card to get you anywhere and your way of paying for anything you buy.”

“We get a salary here, then?” one of the other Aries soldiers piped up, a small Italian girl with long black hair.

The guide nodded. “There are salary brackets depending on your department and job within said department. As Aries, you will most likely start with what would be known as ‘minimum wage’ on Earth, but don’t worry. You receive an allotted amount of rations no matter what, and any extra food, clothing, or games is what you will most likely be spending the money on. It is almost purely recreational. And yes, there are stores you can spend it at. Many people spend years at a time on Olympus, and as such it has been designed to meet the average person’s every need. It is essentially a very large city. Whatever could be found in a city, could be found here.”

There was impressed murmuring from all around, and then the tour continued. She showed them to the gym, which included a large pool alongside tennis courts, basketball courts, a football and soccer field, and exercise machines.

All of it baffled Jonghyun’s mind. It was almost as if this place were a luxury resort, if you ignored the bland gray metal coloring to almost everything and the utilitarian furniture. Everything seemed designed specifically with keeping many people happy for quite a long time, with giving them all a hundred and one things to do other than fight, or think about, the Unknown.

The guide led them to an office, where they were all given smartphone-like devices and ID cards. The ID cards functioned, as the guide had said, as both an ID, an access card, and the way to pay for anything requiring currency on Olympus. The phone had many different functions, from being a way to alert him to where he would need to go, to being a map and GPS. He would need the GPS. Olympus was massive.

The tour eventually ended, Jonghyun and the others ending up at the barracks, where they would be sleeping. The light was unusually dim, just enough to see by. He chose a bed at random along with everyone else, exhausted. It occurred to him that there were no day-night cycles up here, so they would all be sleeping according to whatever schedule they had. That would take some getting used to, along with everything else. It did explain why the light was so dim. People would be sleeping and waking up at all hours, so it had to be dark enough for people to sleep and light enough for others to see while walking through.

He fell asleep quickly, wondering how he would get used to all of this.

*

He woke to an alarm, his eyes going wide at the foreboding red lights lighting the barracks. All around him people were scrambling up, stuffing themselves into their uniforms and running out of the room. He got up himself, confused and afraid but following as others did, putting on one of the Aries uniforms they’d given him.

“Listen up!” and Aries member he recognized as a Captain by his epaulets stood around where all the new recruits had been assigned beds in the barracks, everyone instantly standing at attention at his arrival. “This alarm means there is an Unknown attack directly on Olympus. When it goes off everyone, everyone, is sent out to either fight or do whatever it is they’re assigned to do. Yes, even you new recruits.”

Everyone was frozen, Jonghyun included. He had expected more training, time to prepare, but here they all were being thrown into their first fight.

What kind of fight could it be, that every soldier in Olympus was expected to fight? Just how many Unknown were there?

“Follow me, soldiers. It’s time for your first battle.”

They all followed him, quiet and afraid, sounds of shouts and clanging footsteps as others who knew what they were doing ran around them mixing with the continuous alarm. The foreboding red lighting made him uncomfortable, casting everything in an ominous glow.

They emerged from the metal hallways to a riotous docking bay. Cruisers and other ships were leaving the bay constantly, the previously closed gate to the docking bay now wide open, a shimmering field over it keeping in oxygen and atmosphere.

“Form up,” the Captain ordered. “Gunners in one line, pilots in the other. Whichever you know you’re best at. And then pair off. Usually this is done differently, but we don’t have any choice but to speed up the process.”

Jonghyun was uncomfortable, knowing he wasn’t quite a gunner or a pilot, considering he was mediocre at both, but he decided to choose gunner. At least that way he wouldn’t get them both killed by crashing into something.

He winced a little inwardly. Couldn’t he just…not for now? He really didn’t want to have the guilt of getting someone killed because of him. And he didn’t particularly want to die himself.

He got paired with a handsome guy, Korean like him, with short shaved hair and half determined, half scared eyes, his name Kyungsoo. They were given combat suits, made to withstand the vacuum of space in case they were somehow expelled from their cruiser, and quickly put them on before being shuffled over to a small cruiser.

Kyungsoo took the pilot seat, Jonghyun sitting back to back with him in front of the controls for the blasters. The small cockpit of the cruiser was cramped but fit the two perfectly, considering two people of their size were exactly what it was built to house.

Jonghyun’s palms sweated as he nervously waited, eying the controls that were half-familiar from simulations that he’d never physically touched before. It was nerve-wracking, in many ways, but one by one the cruisers around them took off, theirs following suit.

It was oddly quiet in the cruiser after takeoff, the only sounds that of Kyungsoo steering and beeps from the computer as warnings. All around them cruisers and other ships flew, multi-colored blaster shots being sent at…something.

Jonghyun gaped, his first sighting of the Unknown a shot to his hind-brain of fear. There was a quiet gasp from behind him, Kyungsoo having caught his first sight as well.

Giant masses of what almost seemed to be roiling black and gray smoke hung in space, extensions that were almost tentacle like swiping at cruisers. As he watched, a cruiser was struck by one, exploding, it’s pilot and gunner rocketing quickly away in their suits, the pilot trying to twist out of the way of a swipe and failing. He was struck by one of the smoke-tentacles, and before Jonghyun’s eyes completely disappeared, as if he’d never existed in the first place.

The two stared, aghast, at where the pilot had been, before Kyungsoo cursed aloud, their cruiser suddenly jerked to the side as he used evasive maneuvers. A smoke-tentacle from another Unknown had taken a swipe at them.

Jonghyun gathered his wits about him, finally opening fire on an Unknown, the one that had attacked them. It was actually very easy to hit, considering its size, but he honestly had no idea if his shots were doing anything since once they hit the body they just entered the dark mass of smoke and disappeared.

“is it even doing anything?” he asked Kyungsoo, his voice sounding tinny in the strange silence of the cockpit, and he didn’t get an answer. Jonghyun doubted he knew, either. The two continued like that for what felt like hours, Kyungsoo dodging tentacle strikes as Jonghyun shot them. As far as Jonghyun could see others were doing the same, the number of Unknown seemingly endless. There was a feeling of hopelessness rising inside of Jonghyun as it went on.

What were they doing fighting these creatures? It seemed as if they were accomplishing nothing. If they really wanted to the things could sail right by them to Earth, yet they stayed, fighting the World Army as if either side was getting somewhere.

There was a shout from Kyungsoo and then they were both in the vacuum of space, their suits doing their job of keeping them alive and breathing. Jonghyun’s breath was loud in his ears, and he realized he was hyperventilating. He stared straight forward at a tentacle coming toward him, his eyes widening. It almost seemed as if time slowed down, as if he were viewing the oncoming tentacle in molasses. His thruster boots kicked into action as he lunged to the side, desperately trying to evade, but failed. There was an extreme yank in his navel, and he was gone, his vision enveloped entirely in black smoke.

_Am I dead?_

He sat up, looking around and down at himself. His suit was whole and undamaged, thankfully, and he felt okay. He’d expected pain, death, anything but black smoky nothingness.

All around him was the same kind of smoke that it had seemed the Unknowns were made of. He looked down at the smoke he was sitting on. He wished he could press his bare hand to it, to see what the strangely solid smoke felt like, but he didn’t really want to die now that he’d somehow survived this far.

He stood up, deciding to simply walk in one direction. There’d been other soldiers taken into the smoke, right? There had to be others in here.

There was a yip, and suddenly a tiny little thing was barreling into him. Jonghyun knelt cautiously, peering down at what appeared to be a little dachshund, Big eyes stared up at him, beseeching, and he reached out, petting his pointer finger down the little head.

There was a flash, and an intense pain as he recoiled. Suddenly his head felt as if it would burst, and he doubled over, groaning, barely hearing the small whining noises the little thing was letting out.

After a little while the pain started to fade, and he slowly sat up, the little dachshund still there. She almost seemed to be saying ‘follow me,’ as she looked up at him, and he felt a little crazy for a second for thinking he could understand whatever it was.

It couldn’t be a dog, could it? What dog would be inside of this thing with him? How would any dog survive without a suit of some kind?

He felt a strange sense of trust, though, so he followed the little thing through the smoky nothingness, letting it lead him. It trotted quickly, seemingly in a hurry, and he quickened his own pace to keep up as they made their way through.

He could hear sounds, as he went through, echoing things that were there one second and gone the next. Barely there voices shouting incomprehensible things reached his ears and then were gone, sending an uneasy shiver through his body.

This place was making him very uncomfortable, and he was getting the sense that the longer he stayed there, the lower the chance that he would make it out.

The little dachshund yipped, the sound high pitched and cutting straight through his jumbled thoughts, bringing his attention to the fact that they’d reached the end of the smokiness. In front of him was what almost seemed to be a solid black wall, foreboding and dark.

The dog couldn’t be expecting him to go through it, could she? He glanced down at her, the dog looking up at him expectantly. He knelt again and the little thing almost immediately jumped into his arms. He felt a nudge, mentally, urging him to go through the wall, a sense of time tacked on at the end.

His eyes widened as he looked down at the dachshund. “Is it you in my head?”

_Agreement. Trust._

“You want me to go through? But it’s a wall, I don’t-,”

_Panic. Hunted._

__Something was hunting them, trying to stop them from leaving. If he didn’t leave now he was jeopardizing both their lives. He took a deep breath before stepping into the blackness, choosing to trust the little dog.

There was the sensation of being sucked through a vacuum, and then suddenly the two were back in space, Jonghyun disoriented and clinging to the little dog-thing in his arms.

Or at least, what should have been the fight. It seemed the fighting had ended, no Unknown in sight, and only a few cruisers drifted by his sight.

He activated his SOS signal, arms curling tighter around the not-dachshund. Some part of him wanted to protect her, but he was wary, aware that the little thing was somehow in his mind. Could it be that she was manipulating him to want to protect her?

Whatever it was, she wasn’t attempting to communicate now. The two floated together in space for an indeterminable amount of time, a transport eventually pulling up to his location, doors opening. He activated his thruster boots, touching down inside the ship, the doors closing behind him.

There were other soldiers inside the transport, all in Aries red, and he floated in place, the dog in his arms, not knowing what to do. The others stared curiously at her, and he brought her closer to his chest protectively.

His inability to decide what to do seemed to not matter, the transport arriving at a docking bay on Olympus rather quickly after picking him up. There’s a loud clanging noise as he hit the ground as gravity reasserts itself, the doors once again sliding open. He walked outside the transport, other soldiers passing him and seemingly knowing where to go as he fidgeted and tried to think of what to do.

“Kim Jonghyun?” He blinked, looking over to where the voice had come from. A male soldier in the forest green of Asclepius, the science department, seemed to be the source of the call, the soldier walking up to him as he nodded.

“I am Seunghyuk. I’ve been ordered to escort you to an examination room along with,” he paused, glancing down at the little animal, “that.”

Jonghyun agreed, knowing they had no choice. The dog was still seemingly completely relaxed at the idea. The man helped him remove the combat suit before taking him to an examination room.

The room was sparse, only an examination table to sit on, medical equipment surrounding it. He jumped up on it, swinging his legs, absentmindedly stroking the head of the dog. His eyes widened at how silky the fur felt, having been unable to feelt it through the suit before. There was a fuzzy softness that was incredibly comforting, and softer than anything he’d ever felt before.

Seunghyuk sat on a stool next to the table. He seemed agitated, something that made Jonghyun a bit concerned.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?” The man asked, intense, Jonghyun shrinking back.

“Ah…no?” he questioned, the dog in his arms perking up in response to his own agitation.

“No one has ever returned from the grasp of an Unknown. Not our most skilled soldiers, not a single lost commander, no science officer with as much knowledge of the thing as possible. No one. And then you, a barely trained recruit, managed to get taken by one and get out?”

Jonghyun paled a little bit with each word, swallowing uneasily. “But…I didn’t do anything special! I just walked out!”

“You walked out?” Seunghyuk repeated incredulously.

“Yea, I walked out. It was all smoky and then this dog showed up-,”

“Why don’t you start at the beginning? State as many details as possible,” Seunghyuk told him, Jonghyun nodding. He told Seunghyuk every detail of what had happened, which wasn’t really much, and the man looked down at the little dog, puzzled.

“While it is clear that the creature is no dog, it is strange that it would take the form of one,” he murmured, curious as he looked down at it. “Will you permit us to run some tests on both you and it?” he asked.

“As long as you don’t hurt her.” Jonghyun agreed.

The tests took a long time, the scientists taking his blood, scanning him with all manner of things, asking him questions. When one of them tried to take the dog out of his arms he practically snarled at them, arms tightening around her, and they backed off, exchanging glances with the other scientists around him.

As time passed he felt an urge to just- go. Go in a very specific direction, as if there was a long rope attached to his head and something was pulling him from the end of it from that direction. It was a strange mental sensation, weak but insistent.

He ignored it, sinking down where he was sitting as they prodded him relentlessly with needles and devices, his exhaustion finally getting the best of him. He slipped easy into sleep, his arms loosening, and succumbed to darkness.

*

When he awoke, he was in a bed in a room of his own, the dog curled up on top of him and seemingly asleep, her little chest rising and falling. She was adorable.

He reached out a hand, gently stroking down her back. Her eyes opened drowsily, looking at him almost contentedly.

“What are you?” he asked her quietly, half-hoping for an answer this time. All he got in response was a strengthening of the urge to go in that direction. “Are you doing that?” he asked her again, and got a quiet hum of agreement.

“Why me?” She didn’t answer, instead looking up at him and starting to emit an almost rumbling, purring sound from the petting. He snorted. She was selective with her answers.

“What should I call you?” he asked her instead, and almost immediately he had a name in his mind. _Roo._

__“Roo, huh? I like it,” he told her, and that’s when the scientist from earlier, Seunghyuk, came into the room.

“We have little to tell you,” he said, another woman coming in behind him in the chocolate brown of Demeter toting a tray full of food. She set it down besides Jonghyun’s bed quietly before departing, Jonghyun not realizing just how hungry he was until he saw food sitting in front of him.

“The, ah, creature on your chest seems to have been the key to your escape,” he told Jonghyun, “although we are not sure of how. Any real attempt to study her apart of you has resulted in her being…less than accommodating. From what we can tell, however, while she has the form of a small dachshund from Earth, she is anything but.

“Is there anything wrong with me, after being in that place?” Jonghyun asked him, and Seunghyuk shook his head.

“Whatever happened, you are completely unharmed and all vitals match what we have on record for you before all of this happened. You are 100% normal.”

It really was Roo that had done it all, then. She’d led him through the place and allowed him to escape before he could be affected by that place. And he had no doubt that he would have been affected somehow. She had been urgent when she’d led him out, trying to get him out as quickly as possible. He wouldn’t be surprised if escape was only possible in the very initial stages of whatever happened there.

“I should mention,” he said, “she has a…telepathic bond with me.”

Seunghyuk looked aghast, his mouth wide open. “A telepathic bond?”

“She communicates with me sometimes, in my head. But she doesn’t always answer questions, and she only seems to really want one thing. Her name is Roo, by the way,” Jonghyun said.

“And what, exactly, does she want?” Seunghyuk collected himself quickly, getting to the significant part.

“She wants me to go in that direction.” Jonghyun pointed, his finger happening to point at the wall to his left. Seunghyuk blinked.

“Just…go in that direction?”

“Yes. But I have a feeling that whatever it is that lies in that direction, it’s very far way.”

Seunghyuk digested this for a few moments, looking thoughtful. “Keep eating, if you like, and the bathroom is through that door,” he pointed to a door on the left. “Please do not leave the room.” And then he was gone.

Jonghyun raised an eyebrow at Roo. “Well, whatever happens now is your fault,” he told her, and she only seemed to grin up at him, her tongue lolling out.

*

For a few days they, for some reason, left him almost entirely alone, keeping him cooped up in the room he’d woken up in and delivering his meals, parts of which he gave to Roo. The room wasn’t bad, since it had a few different things to do, like video games and books, but he got bored and sick of being stuck in the one room quickly.

It was on the third day of being kept in the room that he was fetched by Seunghyuk, who didn’t say much of anything beyond ‘come with me.’

Jonghyun followed him, ending up in an unfamiliar room that almost seemed like a command center. A man was waiting for them in the room, handsome enough to take Jonghyun’s breath away, his uniform an unfamiliar black. He hadn’t thought that any department had a black uniform.

The man smiled when he saw Jonghyun, the smile changing his entire demeanor from stoic and hard-eyed to friendly sunshine in seconds. Jonghyun stared, his heart doing a somersault at the sight, almost squeezing Roo a little too hard in reaction.

“Jonghyun, this is Onew,” Seunghyuk introduced. “Onew, Jonghyun. Onew will be briefing you on your mission. From now on you report to him and no one else, understand?” Jonghyun nodded dumbly, confused as to why he was suddenly only Onew’s subordinate. Seunghyuk nodded and left.

Onew smiled at him comfortingly, seemingly sensing Jonghyun’s unease. “It’s simple, really. You, with your connection to Roo, have been selected to join my task force, Hades. We will be employing your…sense of direction, to, hopefully, find the source of the Unknowns.”

“So, I’m joining a super-secret task force to follow this direction thing Roo’s giving me to a completely unknown place with the hope that it’ll actually lead us somewhere important to the Unknowns.”

“Pretty much.”

“That sounds like a really stupid idea.”

Onew laughed, shaking his head. “It is, I’ll admit. But I understand you haven’t been here long, so I’ll tell you. The Unknown are impossible to kill, Jonghyun. We shoot them and eventually they go away after killing several thousand of us. We honestly have no idea if we’re even doing anything. I don’t think we are. I think they leave after they collect those several thousand of us. For what? I have no idea, but it isn’t good, I know that much. We have no way of communicating with them, no way of capturing one for study. It’s a hopeless enough situation that they’re sending the best task force on a fool’s errand to follow wherever that little dog of yours leads.”

“That’s…bad,” Jonghyun said, dumbstruck. He had no idea the situation was that hopeless.

“Yes. I hope you understand why we’re doing this.” Onew smiled again, Jonghyun’s heart fluttering. Onew seemed to do that a lot. Jonghyun hoped he would stop so this pointless instant infatuation with a probably straight man wouldn’t turn into something more serious.

“I get it now. I think.” He said, Onew nodding in response.

“Then I’ll introduce you to the others,” he said brightly.

The other members of their ‘super elite task-force’ were not what Jonghyun was expecting. He stood with Onew, watching them sitting at a table together. One was currently jabbering into another’s ear, the man smiling and nodding as he listened. The other one was seemingly in his own world, drawing something on the table, his tongue sticking out of his mouth in concentration.

“Guys,” Onew said, getting their attention. “This is Jonghyun.”

“This is the guy?” the one who’d been talking incessantly said, eyebrow raised. “He doesn’t look like anything special. Hey, guy, what the hell’s so special about you?”

“Ignore him,” the one he’d been talking to said, smiling at Jonghyun. “I’m Minho. This rude one here is Key,” he continued, ignoring Key’s offended ‘ _yah!’_ at the comment. “And this oblivious one here is Taemin.”

Taemin didn’t even look up from what he was drawing, seemingly not hearing his name or anything around him. Now that Jonghyun was closer he could see it was a dramatic cartoon of a man falling to his death.

“Hi,” Jonghyun said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m Jonghyun, but I guess you already know that. I don’t think there’s anything special about me?”

Roo at his feet yipped in protest, Jonghyun laughing. “Other than Roo deciding to bond with me. I guess that makes me special, I don’t know.”

“Right, the alien dog,” Key said interestedly. “This is the thing we’re following? Why don’t we just pick a direction and start going then, that’ll probably be more productive than following this thing.”

“Key,” Onew said warningly, Key rolling his eyes.

“Yea, yea, Mom,” he snarked, standing up. “I’ll let you guys have your pleasant chat without me. I have more important things to do.” He left, Jonghyun looking after him with furrowed brows. What was his problem?

“He doesn’t like new people,” Minho explained kindly. “It takes him a while to get attached, but once he does he’s very protective. He’s only like this because he’s afraid of what this mission might do to us.”

“Like get you guys killed,” Jonghyun concluded gloomily. He didn’t really blame Key, then. Randomly galloping off into space on the whim of a dog alien did sound like it would just end with their deaths.

“We probably won’t get killed, right Minho?” Onew said cheerfully.

“Oh. Yea. Probably not,” Minho agreed. “We are the best task force on Olympus.”

“Is that why you’re all wearing black uniforms?” Jonghyun asked.

“Yes, it’s the color of our task-force. Hades,” Onew answered, looking proud.

“You’re a 4-person task force that gets your own color and department name?” Jonghyun asked in awe. Just how good were they?

“Like I said, we’re the best. Taemin,” Onew called exasperatedly to the young-looking man, who finally looked up from his drawing. “Greet Jonghyun. He’ll be joining us for our next mission.”

“Hello,” Taemin said, and then he was back to his drawing. Onew sighed.

“I have a few things I need to do,” he said apologetically. “We’ll be leaving soon, although I believe you’ll be training for a bit before we leave. Show him around for now, Minho.”

“Well,” Minho said. “As first impressions go, this isn’t very good, is it?” He shrugged. “Oh, well. Come on, let’s go get your uniform. I think Taemin’s will fit you. You’re a little short, so I don’t think mine or Onew’s will work. Maybe Key’s?”

“I’m not that short,” Jonghyun protested, pouting a little. Minho grinned.

“No, of course not. Come on.”

They ended up using Key’s uniform, it being the one that fit the best, and then he was sat at the same table the others had been sitting at earlier, Key back now from wherever he’d gone. Minho tried to make friendly conversation as Key studied Jonghyun critically, adding his own comment every now and then, while Taemin still seemed spaced out, although he wasn’t drawing anymore.

Key was pretty funny, when he wasn’t being a rude asshole, but he seemed to have toned that down since he’d left and come back. Jonghyun wondered if Onew had anything to do with that then dismissed it. It was most likely just Key.

“You guys are training me?” He fidgeted in his seat, not really knowing what that meant. Were they going to train him? As he was right now he was almost useless in a fight.

“You managed to get out of an Unknown,” Key said. “That’s something no one else has managed to do. We’ll need to figure out how you did that and replicate it, if needed. Chances are where we’re going we’ll need it. You could use some training too, you’re definitely not fit to be in our task force as you are.”

“Oh. I guess it was obvious to you guys that I’m not exactly…prime soldier material,” he said haltingly.

Key snorted. “We could already tell that much. Look at you, have you ever lifted a weight in your life? You’re like a string bean.”

“I did go through training, come on,” Jonghyun protested, looking down at his muscles. He wasn’t the most muscled, but he wasn’t a string bean either.

“Jonghyun, you look fine,” Minho said, sighing. Key sniffed, saying nothing. “It has been a while since you slept, though,” Minho noted, seeing that Jonghyun was sinking down in his seat. “Why don’t you go get some rest.”

Jonghyun nodded, too sleepy to protest, and went to the room they’d showed him earlier, Roo trotting along behind him. He stripped out of his uniform, only in his underwear, and sank down onto the bed, Roo jumping up and curling up beside him. Sleep was a little long in coming, though, as he thought about what would happen tomorrow or in the next few weeks. The coming trip was daunting.

There was a comforting nudge in his head, Roo trying to let him know that it would work out.

“This is all your fault,” he said, half-teasingly and half-truthful, looking down at her.

_Indignation._ He sighed. “You did save me, though. Thank you.” He dug his fingers into the fur behind her ears, scratching, before finally falling asleep.

*

“Jonghyun, get up,” an exasperated voice barely penetrated his sleep haze. Fingers prodded at his sides, insistent, and he grumbled, turning around, and burying his head under the pillow. “For fucks sakes, you’re in the military, how are you like this,” the voice complained, and suddenly his pillow of darkness along with the covers were gone, exposing him to the cold air of the room. He whined, sitting up, seeing Onew looking down at him in amusement.

“What,” he mumbled sleepily, rubbing his eyes, and Onew just pointed down. He looked down, eyes widening as he saw his rubber ducky boxers. He squeaked, grabbing the covers from Onew’s hands and wrapping them around himself. “You saw nothing,” he threatened, an intimidating sight indeed with his hair sticking up at all ends and sleep swollen skin.

Onew laughed, grinning. “I’ll keep my lips sealed,” he agreed. “Just get ready. We’re starting training in an hour.”

Jonghyun got dressed, smoothing down his sleep-ruffled hair, and met the others in the little kitchen set aside for the group. They were all sat at the table, already finished eating and talking among themselves.

“You could have woken me up earlier,” he complained, sitting, and digging into the leftover food.

“You’re supposed to get up yourself,” Key said pointedly. “This isn’t a baby-sitting service, it’s the army.”

Jonghyun ignored him, continuing to eat as quickly as he could as the others continued to talk. Once he was done they all left, Jonghyun trailing after them as they made their way to what he assumed would be their training room.

“Alright,” Onew said as they all lined up once they’d made it to the room. “We’ll all be teaching Jonghyun, but I’ll start first to judge where his proficiencies are now. The rest of you, you all know what to do.”

The others dispersed, Taemin disappearing somewhere, Key and Minho starting target practice. Jonghyun stared for a few minutes at the display, mouth open. They hit the targets dead center every time with seeming ease. Their marksmanship was uncanny.

“Hopefully you’ll be able to do much better in marksmanship, too, by the time we’re done training you up,” Onew told him, watching the other two with pride.

“I don’t know, I’m hopeless,” Jonghyun muttered despondently. He’d never managed to get the hang of anything soldier related, much less shooting.

“I’ll be the judge of that. Here,” he handed Jonghyun a laser rifle. “Shoot this. Aim for that target.” He gestured to a target on the far side of the room. Jonghyun bit his lip, a little worried of hitting something he wasn’t supposed to, but complied, awkwardly aiming the rifle to point it at the target. He pulled the trigger, a red laser shooting out and scorching a mark into the metal wall next to the target, and very far from where he’d been aiming. He sighed, the gun falling to his side.

When he turned to look at Onew, the man’s expression was tight, his eyes a little hard, and Jonghyun inwardly gulped. He’d known the man wouldn’t be happy at his lack of skills, but he hadn’t expected him to get this displeased so quickly.

“Bring the gun back up. Hold it as you would if you were going to shoot it, but don’t actually fire,” he told Jonghyun, and Jonghyun quickly complied, trying not to anger him further.

“Didn’t they teach you how to hold a rifle properly?” Onew asked, voice still tight, and Jonghyun blinked.

“There’s a proper way to hold the rifle?”

Onew was silent, his expression darkening a bit. “Minho,” he called, Minho stopping what had devolved from target practice to a game with Key to jog over to the two of them.

“Yea?” he questioned, looking curiously between them.

“Since you’re the best marksman out of all of us, I would like you to tutor Jonghyun in marksmanship for the next week. From the bottom, total basics. Got that?”

Minho nodded, still looking confused, but Onew only strode away purposefully, his expression still forbidding.

“What got him so riled up?” Minho asked, eyebrow raised.

“Uh, I think it’s how bad I am at aiming,” Jonghyun said embarrassedly.

Minho shook his head. “He didn’t expect you to be good. I doubt it’s that. Show me how you hold it?”

Jonghyun didn’t really want to show off exactly how terrible he was, especially since he now knew there was a proper way to hold it and he had no idea what it was, but he did as he was asked.

Minho blinked at his awkward hold, shaking his head. “Shoot the target?”

Jonghyun tried, once again lining up the rifle and firing. The shot was nowhere near the target.

“Well of course you can’t hit the target, with the way you’re holding the rifle. You’re angling your body, your arms. No shots will ever hit where you aim if you’re angling it two different ways like that. Didn’t they teach you how to hold it?”

“Onew asked me the same thing. I didn’t even know there was a proper way to hold it.” The gun fell to his side once again, and Minho grabbed for it, shaking his head once again.

“You need to be more careful with this, you didn’t even turn the failsafe on. You should never hold it that way, anyway.”

“I didn’t know. I’m sorry,” Jonghyun said miserably. First, he’d made Onew mad, and now Minho was getting frustrated too.

“Cheer up, I’ll teach you what you need to know, don’t worry. And I know you think you made Onew mad, but trust me, it’s not for what you think.” Minho smiled gently at him.

“It…isn’t?” Jonghyun asked tentatively.

“This is definitely something you should have learned,” Minho told him. “How to hold a laser rifle, the most basic field weapon we have, is vital. You should have known about the failsafe, about the proper way to aim. Honestly, it looks like you were never trained at all. I guarantee you he was furious about them sending you into the field with practically no training, not about your lack of skill.”

“But I went through the basic training! They tried teaching me, I just can’t do any of it,” Jonghyun cried, eyes suddenly watering. He really didn’t deserve Onew going off to do whatever he was doing when it was Jonghyun’s fault, not the trainer’s or whoever else’s they thought it was.

“Look,” Minho soothed, looking a little alarmed at Jonghyun’s outburst. “Let me teach you for a week, like he said. If there’s no improvement, I’ll concede and you win, all right? But if you do get better, like I think you will, you’ll stop with all these ‘I’m terrible’s,’ and get a little confidence.”

“Alright,” Jonghyun said doubtfully. He didn’t think he would get better, but it was better to just give in. Minho seemed like a stubborn guy.

“Cool.” Minho grinned. “Guns are fun.”

Jonghyun really didn’t know what he’d just signed up for.

*

Onew was scarce the following week, showing up at breakfast every day but not staying long. The other members seemed used to this, none of them caring too much, but Jonghyun felt his absence as an emptiness in his day.

Even if he seemed to leave the breakfast table as soon as possible, he always smiled straight at Jonghyun before leaving, his eyes crinkling up, asking how his training was going.

Really, he’d only known the man for a few days, and he hadn’t even spent much time with him at all. Why did he miss him so much?

It was almost as if Key somehow knew, the man going out of his way to help him if he needed it. Minho had made it his personal mission to make Jonghyun a decent shot, and it looked like Key had made it his personal mission to make him a decent pilot. Key’s specialty was flying, and it showed, Jonghyun watching in awe as he demonstrated complicated flying maneuvers in simulations with ease.

It made sense, then, that outside of flying he also had a sense of grace and ease about him. He was confident, sassy, a bit overbearing, but there was something supremely endearing about him that made Jonghyun gravitate towards him in his free time. Minho, who’d taken him under his wing so quickly and kindly, seemed not to care, disappearing off with Taemin when he wasn’t teaching Jonghyun how to shoot.

Taemin was still a mystery to Jonghyun. The man was uninterested in Jonghyun, apparently, never seeking him out or even really introducing himself beyond that first hello.

“Taemin?” Key repeated when Jonghyun thought to ask him about it. “Oh, don’t worry about it. He’ll come around. He’s a sweetheart, really. He just tends to be cautious around strangers.”

Jonghyun’s brows furrowed. That sounded really close to what Minho had said about Key at their first meeting, but Key had come around rather quickly. Maybe he should just approach Taemin first?

He found Taemin running a game simulation, his face scrunched up in concentration. It looked like an arcade shooter, the sounds of ‘ka-chings’ echoing out with every successful shot at monsters coming towards his character.

“Hello,” he said, a little awkward. Taemin paused the game, turning to look up at him, his face open and friendly. Jonghyun blinked, surprised at the expression. “I just wanted to see if you would maybe like to spend some time together. You know, since we’re on the same team…,” Jonghyun trailed off, not knowing what to continue with, but Taemin nodded before he could say any more.

“Sure. You wanna play with me? It’s pretty good for stress.” He gestured toward the game simulation, Jonghyun shrugging. Why not? It looked fun.

*

“How are you doing?” Jonghyun looked up at Onew from where he was sprawled across the floor, arms flung up over his head and legs spread eagled.

“Tired,” was his monosyllabic reply, staring up beseechingly at Onew. The man chuckled, sitting down on the couch by where Jonghyun was laying.

“I can see that. But how is your training coming?”

“I can actually shoot things now. And if I’m forced to pilot something I can probably do it without getting everyone killed. No promises though.” He knew he could do better than that, now, that he was decent at both, but he still felt self-conscious saying that. It was better to be a little self-deprecating anyway, right?

“Good. I’ve come to let everyone know that we’ll be leaving in a few days, then.” Onew sounded satisfied.

Jonghyun nodded. It made sense, considering what had really been holding them back was his training. Roo wagged her tail from where she was splayed out next to Jonghyun, clearly asking for pets. Jonghyun rolled his eyes, shifting one hand down from where it was laying above his hand down to pet her.

“Is there a reason you’re on the floor like that?” Onew asked, looking amused. Jonghyun grinned up at him.

“I was stretching. Minho and Key are hard taskmasters.” He really was very sore from their training. They were good teachers, though, and it showed in how far he’d come in such a short period of time. “Uh. Onew?” He’d been meaning to ask him this since he’d left so abruptly a few weeks ago.

“Yes?”

“Why did you leave?” The question was vague, but Jonghyun knew he would know what he meant.

Onew smiled faintly. “I was auditing the training process at your old training camp.”

Jonghyun sat up in surprise. “You were what?”

“I took a shuttle down to Earth and audited your training camp. If you were wondering, the instructors were far below par. It’s a wonder the camp lasted as long as it did. A lot of the trainees that came from there are lucky to still be alive.”

Jonghyun was quiet, struggling with the idea that Onew, for some reason, had so much faith in Jonghyun’s abilities that he’d sooner go down to Earth and examine an army training facility for faults than see any in Jonghyun.

“You don’t even know me!” he cried out, finally.

“Then why don’t we fix that?” Onew countered steadily.

*

“Really?” Jonghyun laughed, looking around the small but comfortable room. “They have karaoke up here?”

“They have everything up here,” Onew reminded him, laughing himself.

“They really do, I don’t even want to think about how much all this cost,” Jonghyun muttered.

“Does it matter? Come on, choose a song,” Onew urged. Jonghyun shuffled through the selection, not sure what to choose.

“Would you judge me too much if I play Mr. Chu?” He stopped on song, the pink icon glowing as Jonghyun glanced at Onew with one eyebrow raised.

“Are you going to do the dance too?” Onew returned, Jonghyun flushing.

“I don’t know the dance,” he protested, ignoring the disbelieving glint in Onew’s eyes.

The two sang to their hearts content, Jonghyun pleasantly surprised by Onew’s honey sweet voice. The two sang a love-struck duet together, staring into each other’s eyes dramatically before dissolving into giggles on the couch.

“I wish I could do this more often,” Onew said wistfully from where he lay crumpled on the couch, his head in Jonghyun’s lap.

“What? Sing?” Jonghyun asked, head cocked to the side.

“Singing is nice,” Onew agreed, before shaking his head. “No, just…have fun. Relax. Being with the other guys is fun and all, but it kind of seems like I’m just a leader to them, you know? I’m so busy all the time that I can never spend time with them like this, and it shows.”

If he was so busy, how had he made time to do this with Jonghyun? Especially since they were leaving on such an important trip so soon. “I’m sure they don’t think of you as just a leader. You can tell they all love you.” It was true. Jonghyun could see that the members of Hades were a family, and they all looked up to and respected Onew, who despite being their commanding officer never looked down on them.

“It really isn’t the same.” Jonghyun’s heart ached as he looked down at Onew. It was clear that he was lonely, even with the others around him. He took a deep breath, steeling himself.

“You have me now.” Onew’s eyes opened, staring up at him in surprise. “You’re doing the fun stuff with me, right? I mean,” he stumbled over his words, unnerved by his unblinking stare. “We just did karaoke and it was really fun. We could do it again?” he finished weakly.

Onew continued the look, his expression unreadable as he searched for something in Jonghyun’s own expression. Whatever he found, he sat up, his forlorn expression turning bright again. “One more round?” he asked cheerfully, Jonghyun hesitantly agreeing, his heart feeling a little bruised. That was a straight up shutdown if Jonghyun had ever seen one.

He would back off. He knew now that any advances were unwanted.

*

They’d finally left. Their ship was much bigger than the average cruiser, and stocked for a long trip. Once they’d taken off Key, the pilot, turned to look at Jonghyun.

“Well, Oh Mighty One?” he said, “which direction are we going?”

Jonghyun pointed wordlessly, Key turning and piloting the ship so it was going in that direction. “Any time the direction changes, you tell me,” the told Jonghyun. “Even if I’m asleep, understand?”

Jonghyun paled at the idea of waking a temperamental Key, but nodded. “What are we going to do when I’m asleep?” he asked, Key shrugging.

“There isn’t much we can do. Before you sleep making sure the direction is right, and when you wake up tell me if we need to adjust our course.”

Jonghyun agreed. It was really all they could do. He looked down at Roo, who seemed content to finally be leaving. “Could you help?” he asked her. She looked up at him guilelessly, eyes wide, and he snorted. “No, of course not.” _Amusement._ “Yea, Yea,” he muttered.

He turned to look behind him, at the sound of footsteps, and watched as Onew brushed by him, expression shuttered. Ever since Jonghyun’s failed advance, the man had acted much the same, if a little overly cheerful. He was a bright person by nature, but Jonghyun knew that this overt brightness was a mask. Especially when his eyes were always a little shadowed every time he glanced at Jonghyun.

It was a mystery to Jonghyun. What had he done to make him so closed off? He’d thought they were having a moment, had allowed himself to hope for a second that maybe his budding feelings were returned.

That was just like him, to hope when he shouldn’t have. He’d always been a romantic.

*

The days blurred together. Onew continued to pretend everything between them was normal, while the gap between them grew ever wider. Jonghyun felt cast adrift, floating through his own feelings and life like their cruiser through space.

If the other three noticed, they gave no sign of it, but Jonghyun suspected that they all knew. They were perceptive, even if sometimes Minho could be a little dense. Roo helped, a little bit. He assumed through their link she could feel his turmoil. She was key in his even being able to fall asleep, smoothing out his ragged thoughts and sending him to sleep.

It was to Jonghyun’s relief that they finally, after what seemed like years but was really only a few months, they arrived at the location Roo was directing them all toward.

It was, in hindsight, a little obvious what it would be, Jonghyun thought.

They all stared down at the planet, Roo running in excited circles around Jonghyun. “This is where you’re from, isn’t it?” he asked her. _Agreement. Content. Happiness._

“Are we going down?” Jonghyun asked uncertainly, glancing at Onew.

“We have no choice,” he answered. “We came all this way. And even if this just turned into a transport mission to get Roo home, at least we did something.”

“But-,” Jonghyun broke off, blinking rapidly. He wanted Roo to be home, he did, but he wanted her with him, too. He felt a hand on his shoulder, turning to see Onew looking at him understandingly.

“Let’s go,” Onew said, and Key piloted the ship down to the planet, Jonghyun giving directions through Roo on where to land.

“Is that what I think it is?” It was Minho that said, it, staring down at what looked like a gathering of dogs, big and small.

“I think we have a welcoming committee,” Key agreed. “Chances are they’re friendly, though. We are returning one of their own.”

Jonghyun stayed silent as they touched down, all of them donning their suits since they doubted the atmosphere of the planet would be hospitable to humans.

The door opened with a hiss, Roo rushing out to be enveloped in a crowd of dogs. They walked more slowly after her.

One of the biggest dogs Jonghyun had ever seen stepped forward, it’s eyes wise and old.

_Thankfulness._ Images of Roo tinged with a feeling of thanks echoed in their heads, Onew, Key, Taemin, and Minho jumping in surprise. Roo had only ever communicated with Jonghyun telepathically, so the experience was new to them.

“Can you…speak?” Onew asked cautiously.

_Sorrow._ It seemed the dog was apologizing for not being able to talk or communicated directly.

“I see.” Onew said nothing more. Jonghyun could tell he had no real idea how to proceed. They had come here to get answers, but how could they get answers out of telepathic dog aliens that couldn’t talk or communicate in words?

_Thankfulness. Images of dropped something at their feet, looking up at the humans questioningly_

“You want to give us a present in thanks?” Minho concluded from the images, brows furrowed.

_Agreement._

__“Do you know anything about the Unknown?” Key asked tentatively.

_Puzzlement._

__“I don’t think he knows what we mean by the Unknown,” Taemin spoke up.

“You can see into our minds, can’t you? That’s how you understand what we’re saying,” Jonghyun interjected. _Agreement._

__“This is an Unknown.” Jonghyun thought about the smoke creatures he’d seen, of what he’d seen when he’d been inside one.

_Revulsion._ The giant dog recoiled at the image.

Jonghyun hadn’t expected that reaction. “You know what they are?” Taemin exclaimed excitedly, seemingly not put off by the strong reaction.

_Pain. Loss. Hunger and death. Trapped. Trappedtrappedtrappedtrappedtrapped_

__They all took steps back, eyes wide at the onslaught of feelings surging through their heads. Images flickered through their minds, of the Unknown coming and taking their people, of being trapped within them, of another world filled with luxury built off of pain and the work of other species.

“They’re prisons,” Jonghyun breathed, horrified. “Prisons used to transport other peoples used as slaves.”

_Sadness._

The sadness was overwhelming, a deep-felt sorrow that brought tears to Jonghyun’s eyes. The others were silent, seemingly not able to find words to respond to the reality of the Unknown.

“We…need to go back to our ship and discuss this,” Onew finally said.

_Understanding. Welcome._

The dog seemed to be telling them they were welcome to stay as long as they liked. Onew thanked him, before they all walked back to the ship.

Jonghyun was almost in a trance, unable to stop thinking about the images he’d seen. The people who had been taken were living a nightmare of pain and suffering. It almost seemed crueller than what they had thought, that all the people taken had been killed.

They most likely were dead, but not killed immediately as they had thought. They had been worked to death.

Once back in the ship, they all sat in silence, thinking about everything that had been explained.

“We can’t stay here long. This information is vital, and every day that we do not bring it back to Olympus, more will die and be taken,” Onew said, the others nodding. “We’ll stay two more days, finding out what we can of these Old Ones, and then we will go back.”

For the first time Jonghyun thought of Roo. Would she be staying here? Would she go back with them? He didn’t know.

They stayed for two more days, as Onew suggested.

On the second day, before they were to leave, Jonghyun went to find Roo. He found her, surprisingly enough, laying with her head on her paws right outside the cruiser, looking forlorn. He sat down in front of her, her head raised and tail wagging excitedly as she realized it was him.

“Hey, girl,” he said softly. She got up, jumping into his lap and licking him happily as he laughed.

“Roo, Roo stop,” he cried, falling over from the assault. She finally stopped, looking satisfied, sitting in his lap and looking up at him.

“I came to ask,” he paused, hesitating to voice the question that could take her away from him forever. She cocked her head up at him.

_Questioning._

__“Are you staying here?” he finally asked. For a few minutes there was no answer.

_Disagreement._

__“You’re...not?” he breathed, feeling the first tendrils of happiness since they’d come here, but unwilling to hope if it wasn’t true.

_Agreement. Missing. Family._

__“We are your family,” he confirmed, kissing the top of her head. She yipped happily, and the two of them cuddled for a while.

*

And as they left, Jonghyun couldn’t help but think that he would never see this place again. It was Roo’s home, and they were taking her away from it. But she had chosen to come with them, and he wouldn’t dare question her decision, for fear of her changing her mind, so he said nothing.

He settled in to a chair, strapping himself in for takeoff, staring out of the cockpit at the planet. It was beautiful, picturesque in a way he hadn’t expected, and a bit comical with all the dogs trotting around. They were all gathered in a semicircle around the cruiser, a farewell party come to see them off.

He was trying to commit it all to memory as the first tendril appeared. His eyes widened, alarmed, immediately recognizing it.

“Onew!” he yelled, the man looking up from where he’d also been strapping himself in. He followed the direction of Jonghyun’s wide eyed look, his own eyes widening as he saw the Unknown appear in the sky.

“Shit,” he hissed. His expression was half-panicked half-indecisive, and Jonghyun knew what he was trying to decide. Should they leave, or should they try to help?

“We have to help them,” he urged him. They couldn’t just leave them all to be taken! They had helped them. And they were Roo’s family. Roo, sitting in his lap, seemed out of it as she stared straight at the Unknown, frozen stock still.

Key, sitting in the pilot’s seat, looked grim. “What do you want me to do, boss?” he asked, Minho and Taemin silent beside him, their eyes fixed on the creature.

The cockpit was silent as they all waited for his decision, Jonghyun desperately searching his expression, looking for give. He couldn’t really be considering leaving them all…right? There was no way he was that cold-hearted.

“Key, take off,” he finally said, and Jonghyun felt his stomach drop.

“You can’t!” he yelled, fumbling with his harness. If Onew wouldn’t help them, then he would. Behind Jonghyun Key silently started taking off, expression shuttered.

“Jonghyun, you will not take that harness off, and you will sit still. That is an order,” Onew commanded sharply, eyes hard. Jonghyun looked at him, tears running down his face as he complied, body slumping. He buried his head in his hands, heart breaking at both the sight of the chaos outside the cruiser and Onew’s cold expression.

*

The next week was filled with silence. Jonghyun refused to talk to any of them, holing himself up in the bedroom with Roo. Key brought him food and water, accepting his silence, while Minho tried to talk to him every day. Taemin seemed to simply accept he needed space and left him be.

Onew was closed off and cold, his cheerful mask falling away. He only talked to any of them to give orders, but seemed to respect Jonghyun’s cold shoulder by avoiding him.

The days melted together once again, Jonghyun slowly coming out of his shell but still completely ignoring Onew’s existence. Anytime he found himself in the same room as Onew he would walk out, Onew expressionless as he watched him.

It got to the point that Key finally confronted Jonghyun.

“You need to talk to Onew,” he urged him gently, eyeing Jonghyun like one would a wounded animal, backed into a corner.

“No, I don’t,” Jonghyun stubbornly refused, arms crossed and expression set.

“Jonghyun,” Key said exasperatedly. “Look, he has his reasons for what he did. I know, because we’re soldiers, and I can see exactly where he came from when he analyzed the situation. You, you might be able to shoot and pilot, but you never made that transition to the soldier mindset. Just keep that in mind, alright?”

Jonghyun stayed quiet, Key scoffing and leaving the room, muttering under his breath about idiots. Jonghyun felt a faint smile crack his forlorn expression. Even through it all, Key would always be Key.

He still wasn’t going to talk to Onew, though.

He held strong for a few more days, ignoring the kicked puppy expression Minho kept shooting him every time he left the room when Onew came in.

Eventually, though, everything came to a head when Taemin grabbed his arm, leading him to their bedroom, shoving Jonghyun inside, and slamming the door closed. Onew sat inside, arms crossed, staring resolutely at the bunk bed across from the bunk he was sitting on, and not at Jonghyun. Jonghyun yelled, banging his hand on the door.

“Yah, Taemin, open up! This isn’t funny,” he snapped, trying the door and finding that something on the other side was holding it closed.

“Talk!” a voice on the other side yelled back, Jonghyun recognizing it as Key’s. Of course, Key would be behind this, and of course Taemin would help him, the little traitor.

He turned around and abandoned the door, knowing he wouldn’t be able to get it open. Onew still sat on the bunk, eyes fixed forward. Jonghyun noticed his shoulders were stiff, as if expecting a blow. He sighed, finally giving in. It wasn’t as if they were getting out of this room until he complied.

“How did they get you to stay in here?” he asked. It was a nice, neutral question, an easy opener to gauge Onew’s own compliance.

“I come here to think, sometimes.” When Jonghyun wasn’t here, he meant. “I didn’t know that today they were going to pull this. I would have stopped them, if I could. I’m sorry,” he apologized.

What was he sorry for? For leaving the dogs to their fate? For inexplicably giving Jonghyun the cold shoulder before that? For not being able to stop Key’s plan?

“Why did you leave, when the Unknown showed up?” Onew exhaled heavily at the question, mouth twisting down.

“I didn’t want to leave them, Jonghyun,” he said, finally turning to look Jonghyun in the eye. Jonghyun could see the sincerity in his eyes, and it made him relax, albeit slightly. “But you have to understand. We had just learned some crucial information. I couldn’t risk us being taken or killed and have the information never make it to Olympus. If we don’t report what we have learned, humanity itself could be in jeopardy.”

When he put it that way, it made Jonghyun almost feel guilty for risking so much just to have a small chance of being able to help a foreign people. Onew read his expression, shaking his head. “Don’t feel guilty. You are kind, and empathetic, and you’re first instinct will always be to help. You don’t have it in you to coldly calculate the risks and consequences. And that’s…good. I wouldn’t want you to ever have to make those decisions.”

But Onew had to make those decisions. It was part of being their leader, and a burden he had to bear. Jonghyun could see, now, that he hadn’t made the decision lightly. Looking at him now, his shoulders slumped, the bags under his eyes, his rumpled uniform…he wasn’t doing very well. He had been struggling, all this time, and Jonghyun had only made it worse, had added more stress. And even then, he’d been understanding, had allowed Jonghyun to ignore and shun him despite how much it must have hurt to be judged by such a difficult decision.

“I’m sorry,” Jonghyun murmured, Onew blinking in surprise. He hadn’t forgiveness, or even understanding, Jonghyun saw. “I’ve been making all this even harder, instead of helping you. I’m sorry.” And he surged forward, wrapping his arms around Onew’s stiff frame, Onew’s eyes wide. Tentatively Onew lifted his own arms up, wrapping them around the small man in his arms. Jonghyun practically climbed into his lap, looking up at Onew from where he sat pressed up against him. “When we were talking, back on Olympus, you got really closed off afterward. What did I do?” He searched Onew’s eyes, head cocked to the side.

“It was nothing,” Onew lied, expression shuttering again, and Jonghyun almost yelled in frustration. Fine, then.

“Since you’re too much of a coward,” he snapped, Onew flinching minutely at the remark, “I’ll be the one to say it. I like you, Onew. A lot. Like…” He trailed off, gathering his courage, eyes flicking down to Onew’s lips. He pressed a quick kiss to them, relishing the plush softness for only a moment before pulling back to gauge Onew’s reaction.

He looked thunderstruck, his mouth dropped open in surprise. “Jonghyun,” he said, moving away a little bit to create space between them. “We can’t.”

“And why not?” He kept his face carefully still, not wanting to betray how much the words hurt, although his voice wobbled a bit.

Onew’s expression softened at that, and he sighed, running an agitated hand through his hair. “I’m your commanding officer, Jonghyun. I can’t properly do my job if I’m in a relationship with one of my subordinates.”

“So, you do want to be in a relationship with me.” Onew snorted at that, shaking his head.

“Yes, Jonghyun, I do,” he admitted dryly.

“Then what does it matter?” Jonghyun asked, looking down at his lap. He already knew the answer to his question, really. Onew would put his duty before all else, including Jonghyun.

“We will be going into combat situations, as a team. And while trust and camaraderie between us is encouraged to help build teamwork, if I ever need to choose between you and the mission…” he trailed off, Jonghyun’s heart staggering at the words.

“You…would choose me?” he breathed, shocked, Onew wordlessly nodding.

Jonghyun made his decision in a split second, looking at the man he now knew he loved. Hades had grown to be his best friends, even extended family, but for Onew…

“I’ll leave Hades,” he promised, voice steady with conviction. Onew shook his head instantly.

“I can’t ask you to do that, Jonghyun, I know how much you care for them, and how much they care for you.”

“You’re not asking me. I’m offering. And if it means you’ll get your head out of your ass and pucker up your lips, I’ll do it. Besides, you guys taught me well but…well, you said it earlier yourself. I’m not a soldier, and I’m never going to be. It’s for the best if I leave Hades and transfer to another department.” He’d been thinking of it since they’d left Roo’s home planet. If nothing else, the attack had proven to him that he wasn’t cut out to be a member of Hades.

Onew still looked unwilling, although Jonghyun could make out a dawning hope in his eyes. “Come on, Onew. Let yourself have this? Not everything has to be about duty.”

“Okay,” he whispered, his closed expression finally melting off completely, his eyes open and shining as he looked at Jonghyun. Jonghyun grinned at him, happy to see that the shadow in his eyes had been lifted, even if some remained. He would do his best to help with that, now.

It was Onew who leaned forward, this time, lips meeting Jonghyun’s in a tentative kiss, the kiss staying chaste and gentle, affirmation for Onew that he could have this, have Jonghyun. “I think I love you,” he confessed, a light flush settling in his cheeks at the confession. Jonghyun practically cooed.

“Are you blushing?” he asked delightedly, Onew only blushing harder at the question. “It’s a good thing I love you too, then,” Jonghyun said, and their lips met for the third time.

 

 


End file.
